Spring is upon us, which means it's time for a big spring clean not only of your house and your living space, but of your mind. I am a huge fan of cleanliness, white is my favourite colour and I refuse to work in an environment which is not completely tidy and organised. However, we can spend hours of our lives making sure that the space our body occupies is somewhere we feel comfortable in, yet completely neglect to do the same for the space our mind occupies. Remember you can never escape from your mind, so it's time to stop battling it, and instead work on making it a space that you are happy to occupy.
Here's three things to remove from your mind to start you on the process:
1. Self Hate - I don't think anyone could ever criticise me more severely than the way I have criticised myself. So many of us live with our worst enemy between our ears. Why are we so determined to put ourselves down and focus on all the things we wish we could change about ourselves, instead of focusing on all the positive attributes that other people appreciate. Recently I've learnt that life has enough obstacles of it's own and these obstacles only become harder to cross when you put your own in the way. You are in control of your mind, your mind is not in control of you so tell that little mothers meeting to shut up and go home because your mind is too powerful to be commanded by negative thoughts. Learn to appreciate yourself, reward yourself and be proud of yourself.
2. Criticising People - Putting someone else down to make yourself feel better is never OK. Sorry for the cliche reference, but to para-quote Mean Girls, calling someone else fat, ugly or stupid will not make you any skinnier, prettier or cleverer. Picking on a part of someone else that you are jealous of will not make you any better or make them any worse, all it is doing is tearing down someone else's self esteem and temporarily making you feel better about your own insecurities. If there is something in your life you are unhappy with, go out and change it. Criticising someone else will not change yourself. Only you have the power to change, use it.
3. Fear of Failure - If you don't fail, you will never truly succeed. Going through life succeeding at everything you try does not mean you are the best or most successful version of yourself that you can be, it means that you have never attempted anything outside of the comfort zone in which you know you can thrive. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone so make your desire for success bigger than your fear of failure. Remember, to feel or achieve something you never have you have to try something you've never done.
